May 1, 2003 | Read Time: 1 minute
From Obstacles to Opportunities, v.1.0: Six Interlocking Elements of Strategic Technology Grant Making, by Marc Osten, Jillaine Smith, and Rob Stuart, suggests ways that grant makers can help nonprofit organizations purchase and use technology to carry out their missions. Mr. Osten, founder of Summit Collaborative, a consulting firm in Amherst, Mass., that works with foundations and nonprofit groups; Ms. Smith, a consultant in Washington; and Mr. Stuart, senior vice president at @vocacy, an organization in Washington that helps groups conduct grass-roots organizing on the Internet, interviewed program officers at foundations to learn about the challenges in making technology-related grants. For example, because nonprofit organizations often lack the knowledge and time to plan for long-term technology needs, it can be difficult for grant makers to know which organizations to support and how they can best help them. The guide describes successful programs that illustrate how grant makers can work together to assess and solve technological problems facing many nonprofit organizations. For example, the authors describe a partnership between the corporate-giving programs of two computer companies—one supplies the software, the other the hardware—and a private foundation that supports professionals to install those donated products and train charity employees to use them.
Publisher: Summit Collaborative, 61 Lincoln Avenue, Amherst, Mass. 01002; (413) 549-0014; fax (413) 425-8308; info@summitcollaborative.com; http://www.summitcollaborative.com; 56 pages; free for download from Summit Collaborative’s Web page.
